Five years ago yesterday when i married my wife Melanie, I didn’t really know what i was getting into. I didn’t know (or completly realize):
- That i was marring the most selfless person in the world (though, i had some clues)
- That i was marrying the most caring mother in the world. [...]
Reflecting this morning on the following section of Matthew…
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. [...]
I am kind of making a change in my blog habits…I have often felt the need to be a little more intentional and meaningful in the what i write. I am guessing most of you could care less about my new motorola razor phone and other dumb stuff.
Over the last year I [...]
I have been doing a lot of thinking about what it means to lead a community towards having a vision for our community. My big question has been, how can we help people to live lives with great missional purpose. Forst and Hirsch have something very good to say about this idea:
[...]
So often we christians tend to make “having a personal relationship with Jesus” the most important thing in the world. This is a good. But, I wonder. Have we become so in love with knowing Jesus personally that we forget that our primary identity as Chrsit-followers is that of being “sent [...]
I am doing some research on community and found this following section off of a website that is talking about Burning Man. If you have never heard of the Burning Man, it is an experience in temporary community out in the middle of the desert. Very arts driven, very spiritual and very postmodern [...]
“The church lives in continuity with the life and work of Jesus.”
David Bosch
This is nothing really revolutionary. But, I wonder how many of us really grasp that we carry on the work of Jesus. We are in the long line of Christ followers who, since he sent the first disciples, exist to carry [...]
It’s amazing what a day with your community will do to your spirits. Like i wrote earlier this week, i was kind of in a “funk” (i.e. male PMS) and after yesterday, i am so encouraged. besides a great day of worship with our community we also had the joy of celebrating four [...]
After waiting about seven months for the application to process, i finally received my new Motorola Razr phone in the mail. I did one of those "fill out these six offers" things on the internet. i was skeptical it would work right up to the day that i received the phone in the mail.
this [...]
if you are a fan of basketball…you have to watch this clip off of NBA.com. If is a dunk by rookie Gerald Green during a summer league game. its amazing.
I have found myself in a weird funk the last week. Nothing major. Just a funk. Spritually, emotionally, pastorally, physically…pretty much everything. But, like I said. Its nothing major. Maybe its male PMS. Who knows.
i’ve been doing some extra-curricular writing these days, this is something I wrote a few weeks ago and thought i would share…
About two thousand years ago this bizarre Jewish teacher named Jesus walked the earth, told some confusing stories, did some unbelievable miracles and then proceeded to [...]
In the Philly Enquirer on the front page, i found this article about Evangelicals and Riches. The article discusses the differing views on money within the evangelical camp
(from the Prosperity Gospel to those more concerned about social justice.
Quote of the aricle:
“Jesus did not die on the cross so you could buy a new Mercedes,” [...]
Christians find their true identity when they are involved in mission, in communicating to others a new way of life, a new interpretation of reality and of God, and in committing themselves to the liberation of reality and of God, and in committing themselves to the liberation and salvation of others. A missionary community [...]
Is it possible to be so committed to falling in love with Jesus that you forget about the mission he sent us on?
and…
Is it possible to be so committed to the mission that you forget to fall in love with Jesus himself?
These two things (loving Jesus, loving people) are not opposites. They work together. [...]
we finally have our next gathering announced in our newly redesigned PhillyEmergent website. My friend Matt Heerema kindly redesigned it for us. It looks MUCH better than the simple one i did. You should go check out his work and also if you are from the area see if you can make [...]
Reading a Bosch’s Transforming Mission again and he is discussing Matthew’s theology of mission. A good bite here:
“The failure of Christians to live according to the standards of the Sermon on the Mount does not, however, absolve them from the challenge to do so. Particularly in our contemporary world of violence and counter-violence, [...]
I have been thinking a lot about these two questions for the last couple days:
What is God doing in my life?
What (or who) is God calling me to?
Admittedly these are pretty simple questions. They are not awfully profound and they could be answered with very little thought by someone of they really wanted to. [...]